Updates on our shelter

Here are the latest updates on the shelter:

18 April 2018

The project for the shelter renovations has been approved by all authorities. Unfortunately we have been told that all renovations have to be done and approved before we will get registration. Over the past year different authorities have added their own demands which has meant the project manager adding things and amending things on the plans. We are now waiting for the builder to revise his original quote, taking into account the additional work. Hopefully his quote is acceptable and we can then begin work.

In other news, due to the fact that we now have to start the major renovations before we will get registration, we have had to have a number of outside pens built and split the exercise yards. We had hoped we would get registration before the renovations, enabling us to do adoptions and giving us more room for the work to be done. As it is, we are going to struggle removing all the dogs from each part of the building while work is carried out. The exercise yards have been split again so that we can have dogs in each part of the yards with kennels while the work is carried out inside the building. This wasn’t allowed for in our original budget so we do need to fundraise to cover the extra expense.

Yesterday we got a letter from Rios stating that everything RSDR has been asked to complete has now been done, including major points of location and sound.

The only thing Rios now need is a more detailed plan on what RSDR do with the dirty water. On our project plan, it states that RSDR will have a septic tank put in which will be drained every 5 weeks. RSDR had to get a contract from the waterboard and this has now been done, and has been given to the project man who will submit the contract with a detailed plan on water waste and the septic tank to both Rios and the Municipality to approve it. Once that has been done, it is then over to the Animal Health and Food agency with their decision on what happens next.

RSDR has also come up with a plan on the replacement of the wooden pens that the authorities asked RSDR to replace within a 3 month timespan in January 2018. RSDR will be getting wire pens made. These will then be installed a row at a time, due to limited space. With the wire pens done, we will then have more space to do the floors, walls and ceilings at a later date.

In other news, the last month, as we have limited staff and so many animals at the shelter, we don’t have enough time in the day to do all the jobs that need doing so we decided that putting more dogs out in the exercise yards should help with speeding things up. To do this, we decided to split the exercise yards up into two with new wire fencing, so more dogs can go out.

With the shelter not being able to do adoption transports for the past year, there has been a huge increase in numbers of animals on the streets in the Rudozem area. The amount we are seeing in this area, we haven’t seen in over 11 years since we started feeding dogs. We worked out just the other day, that if we had to rescue the animals locally we could easily rescue over 150 dogs and cats just in our municipality alone.

This is a video and photo album of just some of the dogs and cats on the streets

RSDR are unable to do any adoptions until we get the shelter registration and the authorities have told RSDR not to take in any more animals or we will be fined and charged. Because of this, more and more animals are now on the streets and it is ever increasing. We are being asked for help by phone and emails every day and have to say no. So it’s vital that we get registration so we can do adoption transports again.

With the increasing numbers we are in desperate need of help with the costs of feeding the animals. RSDR are also trying to flea and worm the many pups and dogs on the streets that they see, so there is less risk of disease with parasites. If anyone would like to help with a donation to feed and flea/worm the animals on the streets, please sign up to our sponsor a dog or cat program on our website. The sponsor program is a a co-sponsor program where ALL the funds donated in this program, go towards feedings costs of ALL the animals at the shelter, as well as towards the daily feeding runs RSDR has set up for animals living on the streets. Please go to http://www.streetdogrescue.com/sponsor and you can choose which shelter animal’s photo you wish to receive each month. Or you can make a one-off donation on our website at http://www.streetdogrescue.com/donatehelp.htm

January 2018

Last year in January 2017, due to a new Bulgarian law passing, RSDR were told we could no longer do transports with TRACES unless we were also a registered shelter (even though we are already a registered foundation and TRACES registered).

We have been fundraising and renovating parts of the shelter for years to bring it up to standard, including having sound-proof barriers. Since February 2017, RSDR has done all the necessary training courses in animal handling, animal transport and registered two vehicles for moving animals. We have had a project manager and architect working on the plans for the renovations and fundraised for the renovations. The last year has been a very long and lengthy process. The reason it has been so lengthy, is because for our area we are the first applying for shelter registration and the authorities haven’t done this kind of thing before, so it is all new to them.

We would like to thank all our adopters who are still waiting patiently for their animals and have not given up. People have been asking for updates, however we are still waiting on progress with the shelter registration so cannot give an update on what is happening yet. Hopefully we shall know in the following weeks on the next step.

In the past few days, we have been told that other organisations across Bulgaria are now being told the same about the new law on transports with rescues animals and that rescue animals needing to be transported from TRACES must also come from a registered shelter. We wish them the best with the process in registering.

In other news, this year in January 2018, RSDR has been concentrating on neutering all our male animals and taking them to our local vet. To do any neuter and spay RSDR had to travel by road (8 hours round trip) to a reputable vet that knows the procedure, which meant a 12-16 hour day once animals had been operated on and recovered. We also could only take up to 2-3 animals at a time. The good news now is that our local vet has been doing more training at one of the vet colleges, and we are now able to get male animals neutered locally. If you would to see which animals have been neutered please visit our facebook album at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/rudozemstreetdogrescue/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10156057933244264. If anyone would like to donate 35 euros for the dogs that have been neutered please donate on our online shop at www.rsdrshop.com